It’s been 17 years since Tyra Banks burst onto our TV screens as the host and judge of model competition America’s Next Top Model. A lot has changed since 2003, including our tolerance for problematic comments – some of which Tyra Banks has apologised for during her early days on the show.
In a recent tweet, Banks wrote, “Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you. Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and am sending so much love and virtual hugs.”
Tyra’s Twitter apology comes after an increase in social media posts and TikTok videos pointing out cringeworthy and incredibly problematic moments from the show.
In one clip pulled from a 2006 episode of ANTM, Banks tells contestant Dani Evans that she’d never get a ‘CoverGirl contract’ with a gap between her front teeth.
“Do you really think you can have a CoverGirl contract with a gap in your mouth?” she asks Evans. “It’s not marketable.”
Ironically, Evans went on to win that season of the show and model for Cover Girl. Not to mention the fact that gap-toothed models became incredibly popular in the ensuing years.
But the uncomfortable ANTM moments didn’t end there. In another resurfaced clip from season 13 of the show, Banks gets contestants to don darkened makeup to portray different races for a ‘bi-racial’ photoshoot.
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At the time, Banks addressed the backlash, saying, “What we thought was a celebration turned out to be…very negative in some of the press and a lot of them were even saying that it was racism. A lot of them went so far as to accuse me and ‘Top Model’ of putting the girls in black face.”
‘I want to be clear: I, in no way, put my Models in blackface. I’m a black woman. I am proud. I love my people and the struggle that we have gone through continues and the last thing that I would ever do is be a part of something that degraded my race.”
In another clip from the show, a contestant finds out a close friend has died and the next day has to take part in a spooky cemetery photoshoot where she’s asked to pose inside a grave.
After taking into all these truly problematic and insensitive moments, and the many more lurking around the internet, it begs the question: is Tyra Banks’ apology tweet too little too late?
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